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Thursday, January 12, 2012

How To Run A Smear Campaign: The AHF War On Porn..Errrrrrrr...Condom Mandate Campaign EXPOSED Via Email Dump

Yesterday morning, when I posted that the LA City Council had given preliminary approval to the proposed condom mandate legislation, I wondered whether there would be any push back from people opposed to this legislation.

Well, last night, the push came back. Did it ever.

After logging in from work, I happened to notice an email from which forwarded me to a site called Pastebin.com, which in itself featured a long series of email discussions and exchanges involving some key figures in the whole condom mandate campaign amongst AHF, Cal-OSHA, Shelley Lubben's Pink Cross Foundation, various media types, and a few individuals also affected or involved in the whole campaign. Needless to say, the reading was interesting and illuminating, to say the least.

The emails go from around April of 2010, when AHF was initiating and expanding their efforts to shut down AIM through nuisance lawsuits and forced government action, to September of last year, in the midst of the last HIV "outbreak" and the initiation of the LA city condom mandate ordinance. Mostly, it's internal communication between AHF President Michael Weinstein and legal counsel Brian Chase, and their media contingent attempting to exploit ongoing events to sell their campaign.

However, the sideshow action accompanying the main event is rather intriguing in and of itself. Appearences include: Shelley Lubben attempting to nose herself and her org in on the promotion, while AHF attempts to keep her at arms length, for the obvious reasons; former performer Tim Tirch (aka "Joe Know") playing the role of the whistleblower, even though he ultimately can't deliver the goods; Diane Grundmaison ("Desi Foxx") as the test case sacrificial lamb for undoing AIM, her pimping out her own daughter at Nevada brothels aside; Molly Hennessy-Fiske, reporter for the LA Times, doing her best to propangandize for AHF; and Derrick Burts, bi/gay Rentboy model and "Patient Zeta" for the 2010 "outbreak", pleading for money to get out of his probation problems.

The most interesting and shocking moment for me comes when Desi (nee' "Dee Grandmason") attempts to bring in Donny Long's posting of a faked up HIV+ test of retired porn actress Mercedes Ashley...and Weinstein and Chase treat it as actual legitimate test and even solicits to recruit Ashley to the cause!!! Never mind that Ashley not only refuted that charge, but countered with her own HIV test which proved negative.

There are the funnier points, too: Chase mumbling about the Ministress trying to muscle in on their operation and score some promotional points at AHF's expense; DBurts being mocked for soliciting money from the "Bail Twinks Out Of Jail" account; Weinstein bitching at a Canadian TV program for "favoring" Nina Hartley over Darren James in their coverage of the 2010 "outbreak"; Lubben lobbing the charge at LukeIsBack.com that they allowed "known bondage film producer who promotes violence against women" Ernest Greene to post comments against them (I guess she forgot that Ernest is the husband of Nina "contracted chlamydia 4 times" Hartley, right??)...etc., etc.

Or, if you wish, just go over to my Red Garter Club blog, where I have posted as a special page a slightly redacted copy of the email dump.

BTW...Michael Whiteacre has posted a nice analysis/timeline relating the emails to the ensuing events over at LukeIsBack.com; Part 1 can be found here, Part 2, here.

A point of clarification: there may have been the implication that since I had originally learned of the Pastebin.com article from Michael Whiteacre, he must have been one of those responsible for the release of the data. That is entirely FALSE, and I can vouch to the fact that he himself was forwarded the link from others, whom also emailed me; and that is his ONLY involvement regarding this matter.

1 comment:

There's so much to say about this incredible treasure trove of deceit and collusion, but let me start with Molly Hennessy-Fiske, AHF's 'girl at The Times' -- not only does she eagerly propagandize for them, at one point she acts as their source! She turns them on to something she read on the web, then sends them to go check out out so they can use it (and, of course, give her a quote).

I'm fairly certain that's not how the relationship is supposed to work.

I studied journalism under the great Edwin Diamond at NYU, and I'm equally certain that he would have spat in her face.

Another interesting moment comes when Brian Chase indicates that he can't get Derrick Burts' bail cost through "the First National Bank of Husband." Is he saying that his "significant other" works in accounting at AHF? That would be convenient, seeing as how AHF is such a close-knit group of co-conspirators.

And, of course, AHF made no mention of the fact that Burts was out on bail for felony burglary and embezzlement when he appeared at the FAIR ballot initiative kick-off later that month -- we now know for certain that they knew about it. Isn't it reasonable to assume that, at least by this point, they (or at least AHF attorney Brian Chase) knew about the outstanding warrants in Burts' name -- including one in LA County -- on the date of that press conference? Was AHF harboring a fugitive from justice?

Also, I lived in West Hollywood for years, and I'm pretty sure that gay men don't refer to straight men as "twinks." What does this say about their promotion of Derrick Burts as a poor hapless basically straight guy with a girlfriend who only got into having gay sex on camera "for the money"?

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